Our latest student life project teams Tipton Associates up with Walk-On’s Enterprises, where it’s always Game Day. Louisiana flavor inflects the franchise—menu favorites include “Cajundillas” and “queseaux.” Open since 2003, Walk-Ons quickly transcended its LSU roots to expand to 9 states across the southeast. Six more states are on the horizon this year as expansion moves as far as Arizona. Seven new states, if you count Indiana, where Walk-On’s will blend with a new campus for the first time.
Like Walk-On’s, Tipton Associates is a Baton Rouge-based company with national reach. We bring our extensive student life dining experience to the Purdue Memorial Union renovation, a partnership with Workshop Architects and Aramark, Walk-On’s is among twelve new venues, an improved convenience store, performance stages, fireplaces and fire pits (it gets a little colder in Indiana than it usually does in Baton Rouge). The renovation seats 900 indoors and 150 on the outdoor terraces. Environmental graphics will share the history of campus. Walk-On’s adds to that strong sense of place: co-owner Drew Brees got his start as Purdue Boilermaker before going on to a stunning career with the New Orleans Saints.
Brees, who announced his retirement from the Saints in March 2021, is not being lazy off the field. He’ll join NBC Sports this fall as a commentator for Notre Dame home games. He’s engaged with a number of community-oriented developments in New Orleans and heads up the Brees Dream Foundation with his wife Brittany. And since he became a partner in 2015, he’s helped Walk-On’s thrive and expand. We’re thrilled to work with Brees and Walk-On’s to connect his current passions with his collegiate beginnings. “It has been great to be a part of the transformation of the Purdue Memorial Union,” said architect Liz Dyer Spedale. “We’re looking forward to sharing a much-loved concept from our hometown with the Purdue campus.
The Gen Z students currently attending Purdue will make the most use of the dining renovation, but all ages are welcome. Particularly when there’s a good game on TV.
“When it reopens, the ground floor will be a destination, not only for the campus, but for the community as well,” said Rob Wynkoop, Associate Vice President of Auxiliary Services at Purdue. “It will be an inviting place to bring your family before a football game or to visit on a weekend.”
Read more about the Purdue Memorial Union Renovation here.
Thanks to Sports Illustrated for spreading the word!